


A Bit of Home

by Janatee



Series: Whouffle [3]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-02-06 00:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1837525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janatee/pseuds/Janatee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Chaos welcomed Clara when she opened the TARDIS doors. Strangely colored water pooled on the floor, partially evaporated into a creepy reddish mist. Shards of china had embedded themselves in bits of machinery, and an entire section of the wall was missing.<br/>'Clara!' said the Doctor.<br/>'What did you do?!'"</p><p>Clara explains that tea makes her feel at home. The Doctor is determined to find a way to brew it with the sonic, so she can have a bit of home wherever she goes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bit of Home

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the challeng "Invent a new feature for the sonic screwdriver" for "30 Days of Doctor Who, and was originally posted on star-spangled-souffle.tumblr.com.

Clara burst through the TARDIS door, holding a cup of tea.

“Hey there!” she said, “What’ve you got planned this time?”

“The moons of Tailias,” he replied, looking up from the console, “You’ll love it. Tailians don’t invite people there often. Weird gerbil things, Tailians, about the size of an oven. A little cranky too, but they come ‘round. Plus, we can get in to the Velocity Collimator!”

“The meh-meh-whoosit?”

“A Tailian tradition! Think big bouncy slip ‘n slide, but with purple goo instead of water.”

“Lovely,” said Clara.

“It’s a lot better than I’m making it sound.”

“Doesn’t take much.”

“Well, a lot of things sounds better in my head.”

“Oh, don’t be too hard on yourself,” Clara said, “You make sense at _least_ half the time.”

“Good to see you too,” he said, grinning.

“Shall we be off, then?”

“I thought you’d never ask”

Clara sipped her tea as he ducked around the console, hitting buttons, levers, and dials. She waited patiently through the takeoff and landing, then rushed to the doors.

“Clara, wait!” shouted the Doctor. She stopped.

“What?” she said.

“You can’t bring _tea,_ ” he said, rolling his eyes, “on the VelocityCollimator.”

“I’ll just leave at the front entrance, then,” she said, shrugging.

“No! No, no, no,” he waved his arms every which way, “The Tailians have very _very_ strict rules about what goes in and out of there. You can’t just-”

“Okay, okay! Leaving the tea.” She set it on the console and walked away. The Doctor waiting until she was out and moved the cup to a safer spot.

“Sorry,” he whispered, petting the TARDIS, “She’s still learning.”

***

“I don’t understand your tea thing,” the Doctor said a few hours later, wiping purple goo off his jacket, “I like a good cuppa as much as the next, but with you it’s tea all the time.”

“It’s _comforting_ ,” she said, “It makes me feel at home.” She brushed more sticky purple gunk onto the TARDIS floor, and continued, “And I can take it with me wherever I go. Well,” she pulled off a shoe and turned it upside-down, “Except for the Velocirator McThingamabob. Have you ever done that before?”

“Nope,” said the Doctor, but his mind was elsewhere.

***

Wednesday, May 14

Chaos welcomed Clara when she opened the TARDIS doors. Strangely colored water pooled on the floor, partially evaporated into a creepy reddish mist. Shards of china had embedded themselves in bits of machinery, and an entire section of the wall was missing.

“Clara!” said the Doctor.

“What did you do?!” she demanded, eying him warily. His hair stuck up in all directions, his shirt was untucked and stained beyond belief, and a ridiculous grin was plastered across his face.

“You look like Doc Brown,” she said.

“I’m offended,” said the Doctor, “The man was completely mad.”

She raised an eyebrow and motioned at his unruly hair.

“Not the-I meant his alternate timeline theory. Totally bonkers, and way off the mark. The whole premise fails to take into account-”

“Take it easy. What, happened here?”

“Oh, right!”

He rushed around to a cabinet and pulled out a mug filled with water.

“Here,” he said, putting it in her hands. He procured a teabag from his pocket.

“Now watch,” he said, and plopped the bag into the cup. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his other pocket and pointed it at her hands. Clara glanced nervously at the shards of china scattered about, and looked back to the Doctor.

“Doctor…”

“Shh. Watch,” he whispered. The sonic buzzed and the end lit green. She could feel the cup warming in her hands. Steam rose from the top, and the water started turning a pleasant brown as the tea brewed.  
“See?” the Doctor said, “Now you can have tea wherever you want. A little bit of home.” He gave a hopeful little smile, and she returned it.

“Thank you,” she said, and gave him a quick hug.  
“I’m glad you like it.”

“I do.”

They shared a comfortable moment of silence before the Doctor couldn’t stand it anymore.

“It was actually quite hard, you know. I had to find the _exact_ frequency that heated the water without transferring any energy to the cup. It has to be heated at just the right speed, otherwise you get hydrogen gas, which apparently reacts poorly to the TARDIS air filtration…”

Clara simply nodded and sipped her tea, watching her Doctor jabber cheerfully on.


End file.
